Last month, during my blogger weekend in Port Elizabeth, I visited the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (SAMREC) in Cape Recife. SAMREC, a small, volunteer-run non-profit, rehabilitates sick and injured African penguins and other marine wildlife. It’s also an education centre with fun exhibits and games relating to marine animals.

I’ve been invited to be a Gauteng Tourism Authority ambassador. I don’t think I’ve ever been an ambassador for anything before so this is pretty cool. It basically means that I get to do some fun things around Gauteng Province (the province where Joburg is) and tell you about them. So here goes.

Last Saturday night I spent the evening at Beefcakes, a burger bar in Illovo. A burger bar with nightly drag shows and hot, minimally dressed waiters.

I’ve fallen behind on my Port Elizabeth posts – I have too much to blog about and not enough time. But this post can’t wait any longer.

This week, while poking around the Illovo/Melrose area for my SandtonPlaces research, I wandered into James and Ethel Gray Park: a city park just off the M1 highway in the small suburb of Birdhaven.

Yesterday I went to the roof of the Sandton City Office Tower to take photos for the SandtonPlaces book. Those of you familiar with Joburg know the building I’m talking about – the office block in the middle of Sandton City mall with the pyramid-shaped cap on top.

I did a lot of really fun things on my whirlwind tour of the Port Elizabeth area last weekend: game drives, horseback riding, amazing meals, etc. I loved all of it, but there is no question what the highlight was.